Balance your Energy
When you think of success, which "bucket" do you tend to fill? How do you balance your energy?
Is it a healthy body and eating good? Being a good parent? Having a clean home? Making lots of money? Is it looking good? Or is feeling emotionally and mentally strong you work hard for? There are many ways to feel successful and we have to learn to put energy into each one.
No, we all have a target area which we want to excel in. That of course gets most of our attention. However, if we keep filling our favorite "bucket", the others run dry, which leads to other problems.
Keeping all in balance
How you spread your time depends on what is important to you. Yet you do need to make sure to balance your energy and investments.
As a parent, getting our kids to afterschool practice, eating proper dinners, and keeping a clean house would be a successful week.
If your training for a marathon, keeping with a particular diet and running each day will be a success. Or remembering to meditate so you stay in the right mindset.
A business owner may base success on the numbers of sales, or how their staff is showing up.
Point being we all have different ideas of success and none of them are wrong. The part we need to remember is the keeping the balance of health, work, and family. It is important we give our time to each area.
The parent who does everything for their children, but their own health could end up paying a huge price. Or the business person making big bucks, but spends more time at the office than home with their spouse. We must prioritize and remember to give time to all areas of life.
How to schedule the week
When it comes to scheduling your week, try using the blocking method.
In your agenda or calendar start by blocking in hours of routine events. This includes your set work schedule, school or classes you attend, your time at the gym.
Add your family time. Daily, even for an hour or two, make family your one and only priority. Kids grow up fast, time goes fast, and nothing else matters more than this time once you know the basics are covered... food, shelter, clothing, in other words -work.
After work and family, you add activities such as coffee with a friend or seeing a movie. Make sure you balance your schedule.
Once you’ve got all those put in the calendar, look at the area of times you have available. Where can you fit in extra time to work on your side hustle? How about 20 minutes to finally read that book that has sat on your end table for the past few weeks? Pay attention to how are you spending your time.
If you find you have no spare time in a day, you’re most likely over committing in some area. How much time is spent procrastinating and how much is focused on the actual task. Go over your schedule again and get more specific on the must haves. Where can you find the extra minutes in a day? If you get up an hour early, or cut back time spent at work or the gym, you can you gain back your time during the day. The goal is to work efficiently not longer.
Learning to schedule your week takes practice, but it’s worth it when you limit your time on something. It tends to get done faster. Give yourself a weekend to clean the house. It’ll take the weekend. Give yourself a couple hours to clean before the company arrives. It’ll get done in those couple hours.
Stay mindful
You feel thrilled that your debts are getting paid with all the extra hours you’re putting in the past couple weeks. Then you realize how many times you missed dinner with the family or special events. How many times you said yes at work, when you really wanted to say no. You now feel guilty that your spouse waited up for you and is tired when you finally get home. Your emotional health pays the price.
Maybe you are single, and all these hours of work are paying off financially. However, you don’t feel so great due to all the order in, late night dinners and missed workouts this week. Is it worth giving up your physical health?
Then there’s a factor of who you are working so hard for. Is it a boss or company that would replace you tomorrow if need be. Think about if you are you busting your butt in a career to make others successful. A job that others are proud of but you secretly dread. Don't spend life building someone else's dream, unless this hard work actually leads you in the direction of your goals as well.
Do not get lost in the daily routine of normal, make sure you assess your values and that your life is prioritizing those values. If it is, that’s wonderful. If it isn’t, you know where you need to start making changes.
Find a way to balance your energy and the rest will come a little easier. When you are balanced, you are happy, healthy and ready to take on anything!
